I don’t care much for box-pushing puzzles. They tend to be slow, dull, and not exactly intuitive. That said, one glance at a single screenshot from Patrick’s Parabox was all it took to convince me that this one’s different. Very different. To quote its creator: ‘boxes within boxes within boxes within boxes’.
In other words, Patrick’s Parabox goes above and beyond what we’ve grown accustomed to for the genre, as boxes can now be shoved inside boxes, and you better believe this adds a whole new layer of complexity. Sure, on paper, it sounds simple enough: boxes can be stored within boxes. But throw in the fact that you can move the box containing the box you just put inside the box? I don’t know about you, but my head is already spinning.
Learn to manipulate the world’s structure by pushing boxes into and out of each other.
Not in a bad way, although wrapping my head around the puzzle possibilities is going to take some time. Because as that trailer below highlights, there’s a ton of potential for genuine headscratchers here, and yet somehow, it looks like an absolute blast. Sometimes less truly is more, and if you push a box into another box, more can be accomplished with less effort. Or something along those lines. Being able to shrink inside a box to move it into an otherwise impossible position, for example, is just so darn groovy. Based on my time with the demo… I have a feeling puzzle fans are going to love Patrick’s Parabox.
Patrick’s Parabox is available on Steam and itch.io, carrying a $20 price tag.
